A growl roused me from the general misery of hiding under the bed. I almost told Loric to hush up, except the growl was too low. And far too close. Loric wouldn’t have come all the way over from the closet to spook me, not even if he wanted to. Once in hiding, stay in hiding – that was the rule.

My tail was usually too short to be useful. Well, it was long enough to poke at the brute without any of the

rest of me needing to move. My tail-whiskers veered away from all the hair – too much for any creature, let alone one so small! – and I heard a whimper. The brute raced out of the room, keening all the way downstairs.

I ‘Minded myself – retract tail spikes when probing or poking. Unless it’s Bernice – he probably deserves it. I probably wouldn’t forget, but my brothers always assured me that you can’t have too many ‘Mindings. You never know what you’d forget – and then where would you be?